User blog:Admiral Mikado/Extra Operations for Dummies: 1-5
World 1-5: 【Extra Operation】 鎮守府近海 Adjacent Seas of the Naval Base This map is the first Extra Operation, a type of bonus level that rewards you with medals, ranking points and other things upon clearing, and resets at the start of each month. You need to clear 1-4 in order to unlock this map. Sinking the flagship at the boss node reduces the boss gauge by 25%. Therefore you have to sink the boss 4 times in order to clear the map. Clearing this map rewards you with 1 medal & 75 ranking points. It can be quite troublesome for beginners because it requires a rather specific fleet setup in order to reach the boss node. The enemy fleets consist mainly of submarines, so ASW equipment is extremely important. While there are battle nodes with surface fleets, those are dead ends you won't get sent to at all if you're using the correct fleet composition. In order to secure a 100% boss route, your fleet has to fulfil the following conditions: * 4 ships or less * 1 CVL/CAV/AV/LHA * less than 3 CL * no (F)BB whatsoever Video Guide Fleet Setup (No OASW) Fleet Example: 2 CL/DD 1 CVL/CAV 1 BBV This setup is pretty much the best for clearing and/or farming if you don't have ships that are capable of OASW (more on that later). It fulfils the aforementioned conditions, so you're guaranteed to get to the boss. While the ships in the screenshot have fairly high levels, remodelled ships at Lv.30~40 are more than enough to clear this map. Heck, you could clear this map even with a bunch of Lv.1 ships. ASW equipment is far more important than levels. Destroyers / Light Cruisers They're your main damage source on this map, so bringing 2 CL/DD is a must. Since you'll encounter nothing but submarines on this map you don't have to bother with guns or radars, just stack ASW equipment on them. Type 4 Sonars, Type 3 Sonars & Type 3 Depth Charges are the best, but for those who don't have enough of them or none at all, Type 93 Sonars & Type 94 Depth Charges work just as well. Make sure that you equip each of them with at least one depth charge & one sonar. Doing so gives an additional ASW & Accuracy bonus. Among light cruisers Yuubari & Ooyodo are you best choices because their 4 slots allow you to stack more ASW equipment. However, Yuubari has low HP & Armour, so she gets damaged rather easily. Isuzu Kai-2 & Naka Kai-2 also are very reliable sub killers due to their high base ASW stats. You can substitute one or both light cruisers for destroyers if you want, but since the latter has worse armour and less HP you might wanna stick to the former. Light Carrier / Aviation Cruiser A light carrier is mandatory due to branching rules. Yet again, since you're going to face nothing but submarines just equip her with planes with high ASW ( 対潜). The planes in the screenshot are Akitsu Maru Kai & Ryuuhou Kai stock equipment and therefore difficult to obtain, especially for beginners, but you can use pretty much any bomber plane you want. Whether it's a Dive Bomber or a Torpedo Bomber doesn't matter, only its ASW stat. Planes like Type 97 Torpedo Bomber, Ryuusei or Ju 87C Kai are relatively easy to obtain and have decent ASW stats. When equipping a CVL with Ka Type Observation Autogyro and/or Type 3 Command Liaison Aircraft (ASW) make sure to equip at least one dive/torpedo bomber as well, otherwise they can't attack subs. While it's not necessary, the CVL should be equipped with Saiun to avoid Red T since it'll make killing the boss virtually impossible. Besides, unless your CVL has planes like in the screenshot you shouldn't expect her to deal much damage against subs anyway. She's mainly there to secure the boss route and prevent Red T. You can substitute the CVL for a CAV equipped with nothing but Zuiun, its variants or Ka Type Observation Autogyro if you want. CAVs have better armour, which increases their survivability, but since they can't equip Saiun you're at the mercy of the RNG when it comes to engagement forms. AVs would be another possibility, but they lack both armour and the ability to equip Saiun, so I can't recommend them either. Aviation Battleship An aviation battleship is needed to trigger the 2nd shelling phase. It has to be a BBV, any other type of battleship will throw you off course. Once again, nothing but subs on this map, so bring your best ASW equipment. Zuiun should be enough, but if you have better seaplane bombers like Zuiun (634 Air Group), Zuiun Model 12 or Prototype Seiran, feel free to use those. BBVs can equip Ka Type Observation Autogyro as well, and unlike CVLs don't need other equipment for them to trigger, so equipping BBVs with 4 Autogyros is a viable setup and also turns them into reliable sub killers. The same applies to CAVs. Fleet Setup (OASW) Fleet Example: 2 CL 1 DD 1 CVL It is possible for ships with enough ASW to attack submarines preemptively before they can launch their torpedoes. The requirements for such a preemptive attack (a.k.a. OASW) are as follows: * The ship has to have at least one sonar equipped. * The ship has to have a minimum ASW stat of 100 (modding levels are irrelevant, only the number you can see in the game matters) The majority of light cruisers can reach 100 ASW rather easily, whereas only a handful of destroyers can without having to marry them. Examples: Isuzu Kai-2 is the sole exception as she always performs OASW regardless of equipment or ASW values. 1-5 is now even easier than it already was because of this game mechanic. The first node, where most runs used to end, becomes a non-issue since Oscar doesn't even get to launch any torpedoes. Furthermore, you don't need a BBV for the second shelling phase anymore because OASW pretty much works as one. Long story, bring any DD/CL that can reach 100 ASW, but as always don't bring 3 CL to avoid the dead end. The fourth ship slot is still reserved for a CVL/AV/CAV/LHA to avoid the other dead end, but most of the time she won't get to do anything. CVL with Saiun is recommended, but not necessary because even with Red T the subs will go down easily. Node Guide There really isn't much left to explain. You'll encounter nothing but submarines, so it goes without saying that you use Line Abreast everywhere because it has the highest ASW damage modifier. Line Abreast and the aforementioned equipment setups should be enough to sink almost all subs with one shot. The only noteworthy node is the first one. Up to HQ Lv.79 there's a single Ka-Class Submarine that can't do anything except fire a closing torpedo, which she won't be able to do because she's simply not going to survive until the 2nd torpedo phase. However, once you hit HQ Lv.80 she gets upgraded to her Elite version, which enables her to perform an opening torpedo attack. Unlike all other submarine fleets on this map she's in Line Ahead, which has the highest torpedo power & accuracy, so she's very much capable of hitting and wrecking your ships, sending you home early. This only applies to fleets without any OASW ships though. If you have even one the sub won't even have a chance to launch her torpedo. Submarine Farming Several submarines can drop in this map, so it's a good place for farming if you need them. I-168 & I-58 can drop everywhere except at node A & B, regardless of your HQ Level. I-19 can drop at node C & D if your HQ Level is at least 80, and at the boss node if your HQ Level is at least 40. I-8 is a boss drop only and requires a minimum HQ Level of 80. Notes Keep in mind that the boss node gives lots of HQ EXP, which might inflate your HQ Level if you farm subs there too much. Event map difficulty used to scale with your HQ Level, which meant that players who got a high level due to sub farming were stuck in Hard Mode regardless of whether their ships and equipment could handle it. Thankfully the devs introduced manual difficulty level selection in the Winter 2015 Event, which rectified this problem. However, HQ Level scaling still applies to Extra Operation maps, so keep that in mind. Category:Blog posts